Ruben Hanssen on How Urban Planning can be Beautiful, Transforming Dystopic Future into Bliss

Growing up in Rembrandt's hometown Leiden, Ruben Hanssen developed an interest for the built environment and has studied Urban Planning at the University of Amsterdam and Urbanism at the Delft University of Technology. In 2021 he founded The Aesthetic City which is a podcast devoted to the discussion of how to build a more livable, healthy and beautiful environment. The channel is also featured on YouTube with educational content, such as the very informative video called "Why is it Beautiful?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9pg2j2oGy0 What is going wrong in cities all over the world? Which errant paths do planners still take? What "collective image" do we have of the future? How is the mainstream idea of the future formed by popular media and tending towards dystopian nightmarish visions? Ruben Hanssen covers these questions and more. 👍✨ Support our show and get access to more than 180 exclusive posts: https://patreon.com/caveofapelles/ Chapter markers: 00:35 Introduction 01:25 How Hanssen got into urban planning 07:05 Beauty: a non-subject in education 12:40 A practical approach 16:08 Problems of concept & sales-based architecture 21:24 The Aesthetic City podcast 30:43 Beauty from a neuroscientific perspective 36:44 Ugliness causes stress, fear and suspicion 40:21 The importance of ground level floors 44:23 Leon Krier's Cayala in Guatemala 49:43 Dystopic or blissful view of the future? 59:38 Beauty is hard, ugliness is easy 1:03:01 Vitruvius on beauty 1:06:12 Regular spaces can easily be made pleasant 1:10:28 A change for the better? 1:12:41 Summer schools in classical architecture 1:17:22 Estimation grows when knowledge grows 1:20:15 What is wrong with the field of urban design? 1:25:58 Real alternatives vs Progress (towards what?) 1:31:05 Increasing literacy of what works This episode featured Ruben Hanssen & Carl Korsnes and was filmed and edited by Bork Nerdrum. The centerpiece was a photograph of Azaria Civic Hall in Cayala, Guatemala by Ruben Hanssen. SHOUTOUT to our TOP SPONSORS! Fergus Ryan Matthias Proy Børge Moe Eivind Josten Would you like to get premium access? Become a patron: https://patreon.com/caveofapelles/ Subscribe to our newsletter. It is the only way to make sure that you receive content from us on a regular basis: https://bit.ly/2L8qCNn Check out our other channels: https://www.youtube.com/c/SchoolofApelles https://www.youtube.com/c/CultureWarsNow Podcast available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify: https://soundcloud.com/caveofapelles https://spoti.fi/2AVDkcT https://apple.co/2QAcXD6 Visit our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/caveofapelles Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/CaveOfApelles For inquiries — talk@caveofapelles.com